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CRIME

EXPLAINED: How gun control laws work in Denmark

The deadly shooting in a Copenhagen shopping mall and the fact the gunman did not have a firearms permit, has attracted attention abroad around Denmark's gun laws, which are some of the strictest in Europe.

Published: 4 July 2022 16:04 CEST
EXPLAINED: How gun control laws work in Denmark
Photo of a rifle by Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix

What does the law say?

Gun law in Denmark is regulated by the Ministry of Justice and the European Commission.

In Denmark, you are not permitted to acquire, possess, carry or use firearms or dangerous weapons and knives if you do not have a police permit.

Applicants for a gun owner’s licence in Denmark have to show a genuine reason to possess a firearm, for example hunting, target shooting, collection.

Police carry out checks to decide whether it is safe to grant a person a permit and they are entered into records so everyone’s arms are accounted for.

Only licensed individuals may own or transfer a gun and ammunition and can only purchase ammunition that matches the firearm they own, according to Gunpolicy.org, an organisation that tracks international firearm policy,

If someone wants to use a weapon to go hunting, they must have at least passed a hunting test (jagtprøve) and a shooting test (haglskydeprøve).

Civilians are not allowed to possess automatic firearms and private possession of semi-automatic assault weapons and handguns is permitted only with special authorisation.

According to Gunpolicy.org, the maximum penalty for unlawful possession of a firearm is four months to two years in prison.

Age

You must be over 20 years old  and have been an active member of a shooting association for at least two years, to be able to buy a gun. You must be 18 years old to be able to buy a rifle. However, people up to the age of 16 can be allowed to own a rifle if they have the consent of their parents.

How many guns are there in Denmark?

According to Gunpolicy.org, the number of registered guns in Denmark was reported to be 340,000 in 2017. In a 2007 comparison of the number of privately owned guns in 178 countries, Denmark ranked at 69.

The percentage of adults living in a household with a firearm was reported to be 7 per cent in 2015.

Deaths from guns

According to Gunpolicy.org, there were 64 deaths from firearms in Denmark in 2018.

Reacting to the news of Sunday’s shootings, US Congresswoman Lauren Boebert – a Republican and a gun rights activist said this was evidence that America had taken the right approach to firearms control.

“There was just a mass shooting in Denmark, a country with some of the strictest gun laws in Europe,” she wrote on Twitter. “It’s time to admit that gun laws DO NOT stop mass shootings!”

However mass shootings in Denmark are extremely rare. The Copenhagen shootings on 3rd July 2022 was the first mass shooting for 7 years. In 2015, two people were killed and five police officers injured in a series of Islamist-motivated shootings at a cultural centre and synagogue in Copenhagen.

In Denmark, there are a calculated 0.141 shootings per 100,000 inhabitants a year. That compares with just under 4 shootings per. 100,000 inhabitants a year in America, according the Institute for Health Metrics Evaluation, United Nations.

On Monday Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said there would be discussions over whether or not to tighten Denmark’s gun laws but that now was the time to remember the victims.

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CRIME

‘More Danes than ever’ victims of digital crime

Almost 190,000 people in Denmark were the victims of IT-related crime in 2023, according to new figures.

Published: 14 June 2024 17:15 CEST
'More Danes than ever' victims of digital crime

The number, released by the Danish Crime Prevention Council (Det Kriminalpræventive Råd) represents a significant increase on the previous year’s figure of 150,000.

Denmark’s justice ministry, national police and the University of Copenhagen all work with the Crime Prevention Council in an annual study which tracks the figure through contact with victims.

It represents a trend which is unlikely to slow down in coming years, according to the Council’s director Erik Christensen.

“Technological advances mean that there are more and more doors through which the criminals can walk in relation to scamming us normal members of the public,” he told newswire Ritzau.

The emergence of AI could make it even more likely that people become subjected to digital fraud attempts, he said.

The study found that online payments and abuse of payment information were most common types of fraud defined as IT-related.

But “contact fraud”, in which scammers contact targets by email, telephone or online, is also on the rise.

The figure for that specific type of crime went from 13,000 in 2022 to 47,000 last year.

READ ALSO: Danish courts issue warning over SMS scam

“Our best advice is that if each of us takes good time when we get an email or SMS… and check whether it is [actually] from the Tax Agency, municipality or bank,” Christensen said.

He also advised asking a family member or trusted person for a second opinion before answering any email or SMS, if in doubt.

In the most common type of IT crime – online transactions – some 85,000 people in Denmark last year lost money to scams such as fake web shops or trades with private individuals.

Another form – which hit 64,000 people – involves purchase of a fake or counterfeit item.

Some 76,000 people were victims of having their bank card details stolen and misused, some 19,000 more than in 2022.

“We must move away from shaming people who get scammed because anyone can fall victim to it. Even when you look at these numbers, we know there are also unreported cases,” Christensen said.

The Council director stressed the importance of victims of online fraud not feeling shame over what had happened.

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